As Britain’s best-known entrepreneur he has not been shy of wrapping himself – and his airline – in the Union flag.

But billionaire Sir Richard Branson has quit the UK to live full-time on his holiday island in a Caribbean tax haven, it was revealed yesterday.

The Virgin tycoon said he and wife Joan had chosen to move permanently to Necker as it allowed them to ‘live life to the full’ and enabled him to pursue hobbies including kite-surfing, tennis and pilates.

Saying goodbye: Sir Richard Branson has draped himself in the Union Flag to promote his business in the past. He is pictured here in Dubai in 2006. Now he is living on his holiday island of Necker in the British Virgin Islands

The 63-year-old denied reports he had
left Britain to become a tax exile, saying he was too wealthy to allow
tax considerations to dictate where he should live.

The
British Virgin Islands have an income tax rate of zero, rather than the
45 per cent top rate in the UK. Sir Richard said: ‘I have not left
Britain for tax reasons, but for my love of the beautiful British Virgin
Islands and in particular Necker Island... We feel it gives me and my
wife Joan the best chance to live another productive few decades. We can
also look after our health.

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‘There is no better place to stay active and I can kite-surf, surf, play tennis, swim, do pilates and just play.’

Sir Richard previously lived in a 200-acre Oxfordshire estate and a mansion in Holland Park, West London.

The
London property was sold almost seven years ago and documents lodged
with the Land Registry show the Oxfordshire estate was sold to his
children, Holly and Sam, for £1.35million in August last year.

Home sweet home: Sir Richard is now living on his holiday island of Necker in the British Virgin Islands

Inside the home: A spokesman for Virgin Group founder Sir Richard said he had been in Necker for seven years

Blaze: The property on Necker Island had to be rebuilt after parts were destroyed by a house fire in August 2011

Sir
Richard, who is worth an estimated £3.5billion, has previously
criticised wealthy individuals who left Britain to escape high tax
rates. Earlier this year he said Britain’s tax regime was ‘very
reasonable’ when compared to countries such as France, where high
earners pay 80 per cent tax, and said it would be wrong for Chancellor
George Osborne to lower rates for the wealthy.

In
a statement on the Virgin website yesterday, he said: ‘I have been very
fortunate to accumulate so much wealth in my career, more than I need
in my lifetime, and would not live somewhere I don’t want to for tax
reasons.’

Sir Richard will
continue to pay tax on any UK income but Virgin Group Holdings, which
encompasses his business empire, is controlled by family trusts based in
the BVI, according to The Sunday Times.

From above: Sir Richard sold his Oxfordshire mansion to his children Holly, 31, and Sam, 28, for £1.35million in August last year - but the transfer is said to have taken place up to five years ago

Siblings: Holly and Sam, children of Sir Richard Branson, pictured at London's Royal Albert Hall in January 2008

Although
he remains the public face of Virgin he said he now devoted the vast
majority of his time to not-for-profit ventures and charity.

Sir Richard
added: ‘The companies... have created tens of thousands of jobs and
paid hundreds of millions in tax (and will continue to do so)... I also
travel the world sharing what I’ve learned by doing speeches and trying
to help the next generation of entrepreneurs.

‘One
hundred per cent of any monies I earn from these engagements I give to
charity. This amounts to many millions per year, and will continue to do
so.’

Sir Richard’s
spokesman said he had lived on Necker for seven years and stressed it
made no difference for tax purposes if he lived in the UK or the BVI.